Draft:Shinjiro Yamamoto

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In this Japanese name, the surname is Yamamoto.
Shinjiro Yamamoto
Japanese Admiral Shinjiro Yamamoto
Native name
山本信次郎
Born(1877-12-22)December 22, 1877
Katase, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
DiedFebruary 28, 1942(1942-02-28) (aged 64)[1]
Tokyo, Japan
Buried
Aoyama Cemetery, Tokyo
Allegiance Empire of Japan
Branch Imperial Japanese Navy
Rank Admiral
Battles / wars
Awards
Alma materImperial Japanese Naval Academy Naval War College
SpouseShiyoko Yoshimara (died 1929)

Shinjiro Yamamoto (山本信次郎) (22 December 1877 – 28 February 1942) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He is known for being one of the highest ranking Catholic officials in the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces.[2]

Personal Life

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His father was Shōtarō Yamamoto. He died in 1923.[3][4]

He was married to Shiyoko Yoshimara (born 1884, died 1929),[5] a fellow catholic and together had three sons and two daughters.[3] One of his sons, Hitoshi, died in battle in Nomonhan in 1939, during the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. His daughter, Takeko, became a catholic nun.[4] He had one adoptive daughter, Mume (born 1891).[5]

Yamamoto made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1938.[6] He was also a knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.[7] He was a close acquaintance to French diplomat and poet Paul Claudel.[2]

Biography

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Yamamoto was born in Katase (now part of Fujisawa), Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan on the 22nd of December, 1877 (year 10 of the Meiji Era). He attended a grammar school in Katase, before entering the Gyosei boarding school in Tokyo at age 14, where he learnt French and English. His father, a counselor at a Buddhist temple, initially opposed his conversion to Christianity but later granted permission in 1893. He was baptized later that year on December 24, 1893 by Father Alphonse Henrique, taking the Christian name Stephano.[2]

He entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1895, at the age of 17. He graduated with honors in 1900.[8] He met Pope Leo XIII in 1902, Pope Pius X in 1908, Pope Benedict XV thrice in 1917, 1919, and 1921, and Pope Pius XI in 1932. The circumstances of the third meeting with Pope Benedict XV had Yamamoto accompany then Crown Prince Hirohito as a translator and French instructor.

Yamamoto served in the Boxer Rebellion, where he was most notably stationed aboard the cruiser Kasagi as an interpreter due to his proficiency in English and French.[4][9] During the Russo-Japanese War, he served under Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō. He was present during the Siege of Port Arthur and was stationed on the IJN Mikasa during the Battle of the Tsushima Straits.[4] He received the surrender of the Russian Admiral Nikolai Nebogatov.[7] In 1909, he graduated from the Naval War College, then being assigned as an aide-de-camp to Admiral Tōgō.

Following the outbreak of the First World War, Yamamoto became naval attaché to the Japanese Embassy in Rome. He was appointed as a representative to the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty by Saionji Kinmochi.[4] Japan received the South Seas Mandate for the nation's contributions in the war, in where Yamamoto had supported Catholic missions to the Micronesian islands.[10]

In 1938, as an official envoy sent by Pope Pius XI to Brazil, he bestowed the medal of Saint Gregory the Great to Catholic missionary and priest Domingos Chohachi Nakamura.[11]

He died on the 28th of February, 1942, in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, just under three months after the Attack on Pearl Harbour and the escalation of the Pacific War.[4] His death was due to complications with cerebral arteriosclerosis.[9] He was remembered by Tanaka Kōtarō, another Japanese Catholic whom he referred to as a 'monk in military uniform'.[4]

Grave of Shinjiro Yamamoto, in the Aoyama Cemetery

In media

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He was played by actor Seiji Hino in the 2009 Japanese war drama TV series Saka no ue no kumo (Clouds Above the Hill), based off of the book of the same name by Ryōtarō Shiba.[12]

Decorations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ https://marianist.org/PDFs/via_latina22/YamamotoEng.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ^ a b c "The Catholic Admiral from Japan". Catholic Answers. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  3. ^ a b Yamamoto, Denjiro. The Story of my Father. p. 225.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Morgan, Jason M. (2023). The Monk In Military Uniform.
  5. ^ a b "国立国会図書館デジタルコレクション". dl.ndl.go.jp. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  6. ^ texte, Parti communiste français Auteur du (1938-01-13). "L'Humanité : journal socialiste quotidien". Gallica. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  7. ^ a b Berthod, Bernand. Grandes figures de l'Ordre de Malte.
  8. ^ "Sophia Magazine Vol.17". www.sophia.ac.jp. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  9. ^ a b marianist.org/PDFs/via_latina22/YamamotoEng.pdf
  10. ^ "Japan Achieved Successes In Micronesia Unlike Any Nation Before or Since, Says Noted Historian Francis X. Hezel, SJ | The Association for Promotion of International Cooperation (APIC)". www.apic.or.jp. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  11. ^ "Diocese Presidente Prudente -". Diocese Presidente Prudente. 2025-02-12. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  12. ^ Ryōtarō, Shiba (2013-12-05). Clouds above the Hill: A Historical Novel of the Russo-Japanese War, Volume 1. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-16223-7.
  13. ^ texte, Groupe Bayard Auteur du (1919-10-18). "La Croix". Gallica. Retrieved 2025-02-12.